Han Meyer, a professor of urban design from Delft University of Technology (TU-Delft), the Netherlands, was invited to the 8th International Conference on Planning and Design (ICPD) and gave a keynote speech on Urbanism and Urbanization at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, on May 27.

In his talk, Meyer focused on the changing role and content of urban design and urban planning in the 21st century. “Due to changes in climate, technology, economy and political ideology, this role and content is shifting the popular belief in the robustness and resistance of policies and systems to a more complex and uncertain perspective,” he said.

To start his talk, he changed his speech title to “Back to the Basics” and posited that, nowadays, we should emphasizes more on the last two elements, namely, the urban ground plan and the preservation of the ground.

Then he highlighted two dynamics of different layers and introduced two new approaches in the Netherlands, namely, resilient and adaptive flood defense system as well as room for the river. So that the organic approach should let go the layer approach and emphasize on reducing chances of flooding, and reducing the consequences.

Meyer said he had given some thought about the differences and similarities between Taiwan and the Netherlands.

He saw some similarity in the size of the countries and the size of the economy, but other than that there were no resemblances at first glance. He then asked himself the hypothetical question: In terms of urbanization do we have something in common?

He said, “I certainly think we have. The Netherlands is formed by the delta of European rivers that flow from the hinterland. The Netherlands therefore has a long history in water management and this condition has to be taken into consideration in urban planning.”

“At first, I didn't think this condition would apply to Taiwan, but through one of my PhD students from Taiwan, I found out that the west coast of Taiwan faces similar issues in urbanism, for example, the river flooding in the southern parts of Taiwan,” he added.

National Cheng Kung UniversityNews CenterSonia Chuang, +886-6-275-7575 Ext. 50042sonia20@mail.ncku.edu.twFax: +886-6-238-9919NCKU news: http://news-en.secr.ncku.edu.tw/bin/home.php